Next Door Hope

Simplifying & Legos

Let’s talk Legos, Mama.

Legos are BY FAR the most beloved toy in our home. My four older kids play with them for hours each day. And so we gave away the majority of our other toys, and turned our tiny playroom (it used to be a porch) into a room for Legos!

There’s a table for creating masterpieces, and each child has a rolling bin to house their special creations, as well as odd parts and mini figures that belong just to them. On the opposite wall there is an underbed bin with loose bricks.

We tried so many different methods of storage—color coded, sorted by type, sorted by theme, sorted by set…but all quickly became undone, and the clean up was laborious. Now, this room looks like this almost every night. The clean up is easy, and they can do it themselves. And because we cleared everything else to make space for what they truly played with, they love the room and play in their for long stretches of time.

Is there a toy set that’s beloved in your home? Is there a way that you can give it a place of priority, and clear away the less loved items?

REAL TALK: We cleared out a TON of “beautiful”, quality”, “educational” toys that I felt like my kids SHOULD play with. But they just didn’t. And our home is so much lighter without them.

#Simplify

#Declutter

#Decluttering

#MomTalk

#Parenting

#Toys

#Legos

#Playroom

Hands On Science

This is a favorite book in our home—for the kids, and for me.

All the experiments use materials that we usually already have on hand, and there’s very little adult help required. It’s been great for my kids who love science to have something they can pull out whenever the urge to experiment strikes.

And as a Mama of 5 kids with very different ages and interests, it’s been awesome to see everyone interested and working together as they form hypotheses and observe to see what will happen.

It’s been an engaging screen free alternative. Are there any “hands on” books or activities that your family loves?

#Parenting

#Family

#Science

#HandsOnScience

#HandsOn

#PlayToLearn

#Homeschool

#HomeschoolScience

Easy Election Resources for Kids

Pausing our regular routines to talk about the electoral process today!

Here’s a link to YouTube to see a handful of simple, kid friendly videos our family is watching. Each one is between 2-7 minutes long. Watch one or watch them all! My littles particularly loved the first video, a reading of the book: “The Night Before Election Day”!

And here’s the link to our election tracker pictured above—it’s a great way to let your kids track the election as results come in! Our littles will color the states red or blue, while our bigger kids will tally the votes and write in the wins. Not sure where I found this, if it’s you, I’d love to link to your page and give you credit!

How are you talking to your kids about the election?

#Election

#ElectionforKids

#Election2020

#Homeschool

#HomeschoolLife

#Parenting

A Steady Presence

Good Morning, Mama.

It’s Election Day, and there’s a lot of energy around what today may hold. But no matter what happens, you are still called to be a Mama to your kids. A steady presence. The one they can count on.

So take time to pause, and listen to His voice. Fuel your body well today, and get ready to love on those littles He has gifted to you.

Don’t keep the news on all day, as it can cause little ones to be anxious. Play outside if you can. Fix a beautiful dinner and tuck them in with a story.

You can rest. He’s got this, Mama. He’s got the whole world in His hands. 🌎

#Motherhood

#MomTruth

#MindfulMotherhood

#SoulCare

Our Journey to Simplifying

When I first started out as a mom, I thought that part of being a good parent was providing quality, creative, imaginative toys for my children. And although we didn’t have a ton of money, I carefully curated, through gifts and Craigslist and estate sales, a beautiful and quite large collection of “quality” toys.

We were drowning in stuff.

We’ve been on the journey toward simplifying our lives for almost 5 years now; but we really got serious about it last year. We scheduled regular pickups with the Salvation Army, and went through every single item in our home, keeping only what was regularly used or loved. There were some tough decisions to make…only those things that we daily or weekly used were kept.

The freedom that’s come from having less has been life changing. I didn’t keep a tally of how much we passed along to others…but it was an incredible amount of items that monthly left our home. Our home feels so much lighter and and it is SOO much easier to keep up with the daily chores. The kids play far better and don’t struggle to clean up when they’re finished playing.

It’s not perfect. There are still five kids who live here, and there’s clear evidence of that! But our days are spent enjoying each other instead of constantly picking up our stuff.

How is your stuff to life ratio, Mama? Is stuff stealing your joy and your time? In the coming weeks I’ll show you some of the spaces we’ve lightened up around our home. What is your favorite area in your home? Take a pic and tag me!

#Simplify

#Decluttering

#Toys

#FamilyLife

#Parenting

#Motherhood

#MomTruth

Sundays

Sometimes, Sunday worship looks like all of us heading out the door and joining together with our church family to worship the LORD outside (or inside) together.

And sometimes, especially in 2020, it looks like gathering ‘round a table in the living room, and working on crafts (in this case, scratch art crosses) while worshipping via a livestream playing on the tv.

Either way, whether the church is gathered or scattered, the King is still on His throne, and He is still worthy of our praise.

What does worship look like for your family these days? What has been an unexpected blessing in the midst of all the change that 2020 has brought?

#Sunday

#Sundays

#Church

#FamilyLife

#Arts&Crafts

#FamilyCrafts

#SoulCare

#Rhythms

Autumn in the Backyard

Fall has finally settled into NJ; we had our first frost last night, and this morning all the grass is tinged with white.

We’ve gotten our small backyard all ready for the first campfire of the season tonight; the kids are excitedly planning their s’mores and what hersheys candy they’ll make them with.

What are your plans for today? Does Halloween this year look different than other years?

#Fall

#Autumn

#Backyard

#Campfire

#Smores

#FamilyLife

#FamilyFun

#Halloween

Friday Chores

Often on Friday mornings, we’ll do chores together as a family to make sure the house is ready for us to enjoy together on the weekend. The bigger kids will vacuum or dust, while the littler ones make sure that toys are put back where they belong.

It goes really quickly when we work as a team—and then we have a beautiful space to enjoy together. We make it fun by celebrating at the end with a game, time together outside, a fun snack, or a movie.

What are some of the cleaning rhythms in your home?

#Rhythms

#Routines

#Housecleaning

#MomTips

#Parenting

#Family

Planting Seeds

We didn’t plant our garden until early May this year; the seeds should have been put in the ground much earlier. It’s going to freeze here this weekend, and we’ll probably lose many of our plants.

BUT… after tending the garden all summer, after watering and weeding and pruning, we’ve still tasted some of the fruit of our labor. We’ve harvested tomatoes, peppers, kale and eggplant. And we will bring more in to ripen inside ahead of the incoming frost.

We planted later than we had planned, but the seeds still grew.

How about you, Mama? Is there something you’ve been meaning to do, but the work seems hard and you feel as if it’s almost too late?

~Reading aloud to your kids?

~Taking daily time to quiet your soul?

~Family devotions?

~Decluttering that room-or your whole house?

~Meal planning?

Plant a few seeds today…water them, tend them, prune them when needed. Put in the work, even if it’s not in the timing that you imagined. It’s not too late to see a harvest and taste the fruits of your labor.

#Mindfulmotherhood

#Motherhood

#Gardening

#UrbanHomestead